Allusions to it, by his contemporaries or immediate successors, would have been pointless if the play had not been well known; but there are others of his plays to which such allusions are much more frequent. It must have been a revival of the play that Dr. Forman saw in 1610; and it was doubtless another revival for which the additional witch scenes were written. Forman's account shows that he was profoundly impressed by the performance; and it also affords interesting information as to how the play was then presented. The following extract, especially, has a bearing upon certain questions which have recently been disputed:
'Then was Mackbeth crowned kinge, and then he for feare of Banko, his old companion, that he should beget kinges but be no kinge him selfe, he contriued the death of Banko, and caused him to be Murdred on the way as he Rode. The next night, being at supper with his noble men whom he had bid to a feaste to the which also Banco should haue com, he began to speak of Noble Banco, and to wish that he were ther. And as he thus did, standing vp to drincke a Carouse to him, the ghoste of Banco came and sate down in his cheier be-hind him. And he turning A-bout to sit down Again sawe the goste of banco, which fronted him so, that he fell in-to a great passion of fear and fury, Vtteringe many wordes about his murder, by which, when they hard that Banco was Murdred they Suspected Mackbet.'
At some time after 1660, Sir William Davenant produced an altered version of Macbeth, which was published in 1674, and which held the stage until 1714. Davenant's version was in effect a new play, so sweeping were his changes. He simplified the language throughout; he introduced a certain external unity into the play by writing new scenes for Macduff and his wife in the first three acts, and by bringing back Donalbain and Fleance at the end; but espe-
